w6csn’s outdoor amateur radio

After all of the families and tourists decided to call it a day, it was time to head out to The Presidio of San Francisco (US-7889) for a little bit of POTA fun with the Elecraft KH1.

I parked on Lincoln boulevard across the street from the National cemetery. Here, an old pre-WWI gun battery has been uncovered and restored to “Battery Bluff Park” with green grass, nice picnic tables, and beautiful vistas of the Bay and Golden Gate.

The place was deserted, giving me a choice of operating positions. Taking one of the small square tables, I set up the Elecraft KH1 using the Tufteln right-angle adapter to hold up the 4 ft long whip antenna.

With such a short antenna and coming off some challenging solar conditions, my expectations for this activation were pretty low. I might struggle to get QSOs and maybe from only from across the Western states. I was fully prepared to come out again early the next morning if I failed to gather the 10 contacts needed before dark.

Despite persistent attempts, the ionosphere continues to defy my attempts to predict its behavior. Not only was the POTA activation complete in under an hour, I worked some east coast stations that were LOUD!

AD8J came back to my call on 20 meters with a signal that was so strong that I assumed he was a local, like line of sight local. When I asked for his QTH, he responded with “NC.” John was clear across the country in Asheville, North Carolina!

Karen in Virginia, Eric in New Hampshire, and Michael in Pennsylvania all had FB signals this evening, although QSB created limited windows of opportunity for these cross country contacts.

With 11 QSOs in the log, it was time to wrap this pleasant evening POTA activation with the KH1. Just a couple of minutes to pack up and I was on my way.

73 de W6CSN